Peter Brown | New Illustrations of Zoology, 1776, finely-bound copy

Peter Brown

New illustrations of zoology, containing fifty coloured plates of new, curious, and non-descript birds, with a few quadrupeds, reptiles and insects. Together with a short and scientific description of the same. London: B. White, 1776

FIRST EDITION, 4to (293 x 230mm), titles and text in English and French, 50 hand-coloured engraved plates after the author, early nineteenth-century diced Russia gilt, covers with gilt roll of animals and a blindstamped border, spine gilt in compartments, marbled edges, binding expertly rebacked to style

A FINE COPY. The work is based mainly on specimens in the natural history collections of Marmaduke Tunstall and Thomas Pennant, but also contains plates based on drawings by the Ceylon artist P.C. de Bevere. Much of the text was written by Pennant, who had previously employed Brown for two of the plates in his British Zoology. Brown was also an accomplished flower painter and exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1770 and 1791.

The charming zoological roll-tool on the covers has not been traced.

LITERATURE:

Anker 72; Fine Bird Books, p.82; Nissen IVB 151; Wood, p.264; Zimmer, p.101

PROVENANCE:

Alfred Bigland, armorial bookplate; Arcadian Library, bookplate, sale, Christie’s, 14 November 2007, lot 207, £4,750